Christopher Bush, Dana Lowell, New York City Metropolitan Transit Authority

James Evans, Equilon Enterprises LLC

Robert McLean, Corning Inc.

Steven Levy, Rad Energy

Summary

Particulate emission from diesel engines is one of the most important pollutants in urban areas. As a result, particulate emission control from urban bus diesel engines using particle filter technology is being evaluated at several locations in the US. A project entitled "Clean Diesel Demonstration Program" was initiated by NY City Transit under the supervision of NY State DEC and with active participation from Johnson Matthey, Corning, Equilon, Environment Canada and Rad Energy.

Under this program, several NY City transit buses with DDC Series 50 engines were equipped with continuously regenerating diesel particulate filters (the CRTTM system from Johnson Matthey) and were operated with ultra low sulfur diesel (<30 ppm S) in transit service in Manhattan beginning in February 2000. The first phase of the program, reported here, consisted of a pilot project to verify the emissions reduction capability of the continuously regenerating diesel particulate filter technology with baseline emissions testing. The buses were evaluated over a 8-9 month period for operations, maintainability and durability of the particulate filter, including extensive emissions testing under transient cycles on a chassis dynamometer.

The on-road operational data over eight months showed stable exhaust back pressure with the particle filters, indicating successful filter regeneration. No adverse operational or maintenance issues were observed which could be attributed to the filter system. The emissions results from the first phase of testing exhibited >90% reductions in CO, HC and PM with the particulate filter. In addition, >99% reductions in carbonyls and up to 80% destruction of PAH and N-PAH were also achieved.